Self-efficacy is defined by Albert Bandura as "the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to manage prospective situations." My self-efficacy for weight loss has been pretty good, because I've done it so many times before (although I never had so much to lose before). Self-efficacy for maintenance was never a problem, because I never tried to maintain. Each time before when I lost weight, I kinda said "Whew, glad that's over with!" and went back to eating as I had always done. I saw dieting as the price you occasionally had to pay to enjoy life the rest of the time.

My attitude is different this time. I'm not looking at this as a temporary measure, a penalty, a diet. My intention is to make this a permanent change, and to enjoy life doing it. But my self-efficacy for maintenance isn't so high, because it's unknown territory for me. It's not something I KNOW I can do because of having done it before. I'm actively working on having a positive attitude and self-confidence about it. Here's what I'm doing so far:

-- Saying to myself and others, "This time is different. This time it's for life."-- Burning my bridges by giving away my fat clothes.-- Arguing with myself every time I have one of those thoughts about "Once I reach goal, I'll ease up," or "Once I reach goal, I can start eating ___ again." Once I reach goal I will keep on doing what I'm doing now.-- Trying to figure out what I'll use for motivation once the scale isn't moving down and I'm not getting comments about my weight loss from friends.-- Reminding myself that "persistence, not perfection" applies to maintenance, too. If I hit one of those times when life gets in the way, or if I lose my motivation and gain a couple pounds, it's not failure, it's part of learning how to do this. I need to figure out what I learn from it and keep going.

I'm telling myself, "I can do it," but in the back of my mind there is a question, a little doubt. I'm afraid that if I'm too confident I'll look foolish if I fail. I really want to say, "I can do it, knock wood." I'm assuming that I will grow more confident once I start doing it, and proving to myself that I can. Right now I'm nervous about it.